This week we followed River Tweed 48 km to the coast. The Tweed is known for having more Atlantic Salmon fished each season than any other river in the world. We leave Melrose and follow the river east (below).
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| Image: Andrew Locking, https://www.andrewswalks.co.uk/eildon-hills.html , no changes |
Starting on the other side of the Eildon Hills (below) we head back towards St. Boswells, past the Roman camp of Milrighall at Melrose and on to the Roman Fort of Trimontium at Newsteads (below.)
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| Image: https://www.u3ahadrianswall.co.uk/wordpress/newstead-roman-fort/ , no changes |
Then we go past the monastery at Old Melrose, along Old Monk's Road, and past the river crossing at Monksford, below.
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| Image: Walter Baxter, https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/1203133 , no changes |
We pass through the sites of many Roman camps as we make our way along the Tweed to the coast and this route would have been used in the 7th century as well. 4 km from Trimontium are Roman camps at St. Boswells, 2 km further is a camp at Maxton, and at Roxburgh is a Roman station where a road comes up from Jedburgh. This area is one of the most fertile agricultural areas in Scotland and has been in use since Mesolithic times (below).
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| Image: JThomas, https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/5113344 , no changes |
A little farther along is Kelso, and Wooden Roman Camp where the Votadini tribe had their strongholds. The surname Maxwell comes from here, where a salmon pool was called Maccus's Wiel, meaning Maccus's pool. (below)
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| Image: cathietinn, https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/5588598 , no changes |
One of our Do-a-Thon participants was very excited to find out that we are walking in the footsteps of her family, as well as St. Aidan’s footsteps. She is learning more about the countryside they lived in every week!
Her mother’s side of the family can trace their roots to 1057 when King Malcolm III gave out land grants to those who supported him in the war for the Scottish crown, with several clans getting their start in the Kelso area.
Her great-great-great-great grandparents lived and worked here through the 1700s / early 1800s during the First Industrial Revolution when coal-powered steam engines created a demand for mass-produced textiles and furniture mills. Small village hand-knit and woven industries quickly turned into 50 massive mills and collieries (coal mines), changing the quiet farming villages forever.
The living conditions became unsanitary and unsafe. Open sewage and crowded living conditions were common in all cities and Cholera outbreaks killed many every year. Fires often devasted cities and working conditions were brutal – long hours and no safety regulations. Both of her great-great-grandparents died in their 40’s.
Many were forced to emigrate to
Newcastle-upon-Tyne in the mid-1800’s because of the potato famine and the
Highland Clearances. Shipbuilding was one of Newcastle-upon-Tyne’s major
industries during the Second Industrial Revolution when steel became the new
building material. Her great-grandfather ‘Nafty’ worked in the shipyards as a
rigger on ships with masts and sails, and as a riveter on steamships made of
steel. (below)
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| https://flickr.com/photos/newcastlelibraries/4076422158 |
12 km from Kelso is Carham (Kair means fortification, ham means homestead). There is another Roman camp here, and in 1018 the Battle of Carham was fought here. This battle between Northumbria and the combined forces of Malcom II King of Scots and Owen King of Strathclyde severely weakened Northumbria. Although the Northumbrian kings ruled over the whole area, the Kingdom of Strathclyde (formed by the native Celtic peoples during Roman occupation and converted to Christianity in the 6th century) stayed whole under King Oswald's rule, eventually being incorporated into the Kingdom of Scotland in the 12th century.
Carham's Church of St. Cuthbert (below) is built upon the site of a much older church, where St. Cuthbert is supposed to have built a daughter house of Lindisfarne. The border between England and Scotland runs down the center of River Tweed, so that the photographer of the image below is in England and the people across the river are in Scotland.
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| Image: Walter Baxter, https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/6389337 , no changes |
Heading along the river 5 km to Coldstream, we walk along the riverside part of Coldstream Country Walk from Wark to Coldstream. This village grew up at the lowest point of the Tweed where there was a safe crossing (below). Unfortunately for Coldstream, this meant that Scottish and English troops fought back and forth through the village for centuries as they crossed the river to extend their borders.
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| Image: DS Pugh, https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/4158292 , no changes |
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| Image: Maigheach-gheal, https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/2610888, no changes |
We end our walk in Tweedmouth, where there was another Roman fort. On the south side of River Tweed where it empties into the ocean is Spittal (short for hospital - a hospital for Lepers was built here in the Middle Ages). Hallowstell is here (meaning Holy Man's Fishery) where the monks claimed fishing rights for salmon (below, far right).
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| Image: M J Richardson, https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/6530838 , no changes |
[wikipedia, ancestry.com, independent.co.uk, mouthofthetweed.co.uk, oldroadsofscotland.com, nationalchurchestrust.org, canmore.org.uk, roman-britain.co.uk, battlefieldstrust.com, co-curate.ncl.ac.uk, britainexpress.com]
